Post format · Opinion posts
A clear position: real viral examples and how it's built
A claim people can argue with gets comments, and comments carry the post. 13 viral posts on X from 13 creators used this format between May and September 2026. Their median views were 333.1K, and their median reach 10.1 times the creator's follower count.
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Real examples
The 5 most viewed posts, one per creator.
Gavin Baker
@GavinSBaker
3.7Mviews
Regret the tone of my post on data centers yesterday. What I should have said: There were reasonable concerns about data centers 18ish months ago: water, taxes, jobs, electricity prices, the environment and what they would do to small towns. Well-structured data center…
360.1K followers · Aug 30, 2026
Peter Girnus 🦅
@gothburz
1.2Mviews
I am the Director of Repair Authorization at John Deere. Today the FTC made us give farmers the right to repair the machines they already own. It took a lawsuit, a 10-year settlement, and $1 million paid to 5 states. Read the terms. We kept the part that matters. Here is what…
206.4K followers · Jul 9, 2026
Varun Anand
@vxanand
734.2Kviews
We instituted an official AI Writing Policy at @Clay. Massive thanks to @sophiebits on our engineering team who wrote this. Originally this was just for eng, but other teams found it so helpful we expanded it company-wide. Here are the four guiding principles: 1. You must…
9.9K followers · Sep 28, 2026
Ben Cera
@Bencera
541.3Kviews
China will crash the US stock market this year. They're dumping SOTA open-source models on the US, nearly as good as the frontier labs, basically free. Nobody can refuse cutting a $100M AI bill down to $5M. Once that deal is on the table for everyone, Anthropic and OpenAI…
62.1K followers · Jun 30, 2026 · Video
Kenton Varda
@KentonVarda
435.5Kviews
I just declared a moratorium against AI-written change descriptions (e.g. PR and commit messages, also issues/tickets) from my team. AI was writing change descriptions that were worse than useless to me as I tried to review PRs: outlining details of the code that could easily…
21.9K followers · Jul 8, 2026
How it's built
Answer this first: What do you believe about your field that most people don't? For example: “Most B2B companies should spend less on ads and more on their founder posting”. Then write one line or paragraph per bracket, in this order:
[A claim the reader may disagree with] [The reasoning, with concrete evidence] [The strongest counterpoint, answered] [A last line that commits]
The median viral post in this format was 1,025 characters long, and 5 of 13 had a photo or video. Use it to show how you think and grow your audience.
Formats like it
All formats, as fill-in outlines: tweet templates and LinkedIn post templates. What's going viral right now: this week on X.
Questions
What is the clear position post format?
A claim people can argue with gets comments, and comments carry the post. It goes in this order: a claim the reader may disagree with; then the reasoning, with concrete evidence; then the strongest counterpoint, answered; then a last line that commits.
Does it work on LinkedIn as well as X?
Yes. The examples on this page are X posts, and the same shape works on LinkedIn: Postel's own list of LinkedIn openings that beat their creator's usual engagement includes one in this format. On LinkedIn, put the first beat in the first two lines, before "see more".
Where do these examples come from?
From Postel's library of individual creators on X. Each day, posts from the last two weeks by creators with at least 1,000 followers that have reached 5 times their follower count in views are checked once: a model sorts each by format, and a stronger model approves it as a clear example. 13 posts from May to September 2026 were tagged with this format; the page shows the most viewed one from each of up to five creators.
How do I write a post in this format in my own voice?
Answer one question first: What do you believe about your field that most people don't? Then fill the template on this page with your answer, one beat at a time. In Postel, pick this format under Viral posts › Formats and it writes the post for X, LinkedIn or both from your answer, in the way you write (one AI credit per network).
I'm one of the examples. Can I have my post removed?
Yes. Send the post's link through the contact form at postel.app/contact and it comes off this page within a few days.